User Ratings & Reviews

A - Pors a clear red-tinged burnt orange with two fingers of tan head. head has very nice retention and leaves a ton of lacing.

S - Big aromas of toffee and caramel, with some spicy rye and citrus.

T - Taste is a nice melding of caramel malt, rye spice, citrus hops and some bread malt. The hops add a nice bitterness, but do not dominate. Has a very smooth blend of malt, spice and bitterness. Initial sweetness fades and turns bitter on the finish, which is dry and pretty clean. I didn't try this fresh, so I don't know how aggressive the hopping was originally, but I think it is spot on at this point.

M - Medium/full mouthfeel is sticky sweet to begin with before turning dry spicy and bitter.

O - A very enjoyable barleywine that had no noticeable alcohol in the aroma or the taste. Taste was actually somewhat subtle for a barleywine, but I think it works well.

big thanks to BlessedBeBeer for hitting yet another want of mine! Gary, you rule! enjoyed out of an urthel oversized tulip.

a - poured a murky yellow that settled in the glass as a stunning orange. massive off-white creamy belgian style head that hung out for a while. as it faded, it left chunky creamy lacing all over the glass.

s - very nice caramel malt. smells a lot like a year old bigfoot. toffee is HUGE. the rye seems to have held up and are mixed perfectly.

t - vanilla and toffee malts. there is no mistake that this is an american barleywine, but the hops have certainly faded. nice splash of tropical fruit with the malt. tastes really excellent. rye works well and tastes dialed back.

m - smooth and easy drinker. carbonation held up just fine...medium bodied which is suprisingly thin for the flavoring. i'd expect it to be syrupy with such a bold flavor.

o - overall, what an excellent surprise to get to try this beer. i'm a big fan of both three floyds and mikkeller...and rye beers!!! never had it fresh, but it is nice and subtle now.

I bought two cases of these bombers and yet somehow, idiot that I am, never got around to reviewing it. Guess I kept figuring i'd get around to it, or that I'd already done it, and then when I looked and saw a little blue box next to this beer's name, both cases had been drunk up.

Thankfully, the good folks at Mikkeller had this on tap at the Floyds fest (only they misspelled it Boo-Goop on the sign, which was fucking adorable).

First off, it's a rye wine. They don't got a category for that, but it's a different thing.

Secondly, in spite of their aggressive hop profile, ryes don't age well. Their tangy ryeness fades with age, and so while that made for a smoother beer, it didn't quite come together in the same way it did when the beer was fresh. Earlier on, this stuff was like Miracle Whip, it possessed such a strong goddamn punch of savory zippiness.

So you got the zippiness of the pine and grapefruit hops along with tangy rye. That dominates the whole goddamn beer, only instead of being balanced out by sweet malt, it's balanced out by this savory malt. (Again, a Miracle Whip comparison is oddly apt). The whole thing comes together like a brilliant hop sandwich.

Adding another sampling of this, split it with mrand01, still amazing flavor, nice underlying citrus and rye, not too heavy, really a super super beer.

Bottle courtesy of codewarrior from our in-person trade today.

Pours a very hazy dark orange, borderline amber in color with a huge fluffy amount of eggshell white head that leaves some nice soapy lacing. A surprisingly large amount of head and carbonation for a XXX-wine style beer.

Aromas begin with a ton of spicy rye malt and equal amounts of thick bready and caramel maltiness as well; smells like a thick dense, doughy, undercooked loaf of rye bread fresh out of the oven. As I dig back in I get some light orange and lemon hops with a subtle amount of grapefruit as well; quite citrusy for the hop bill. Smells quite balanced overall at this point.

The tastes begin with a generous amount of rye malt but there is an decent amount of fruitiness as well. Not initially citrusy as the nose was; I get a more juicy fruit flavor here with plum and peach flavors. As it warms you get a bit more of the dark bready, caramelized brown sugar malty sweetness that was evident in the nose. Flavors borderline between sticky rye and caramel/toffee, but stay solidly on the thick bready/rye malty side. There is a nice solid citrus hop bitterness and flavor profile that stops this from being cloying or anywhere close to being too sweet, which is possible with aged barleywines.

The mouthfeel is full bodied with full carbonation but luckily is doesn't detract from the experience here. If the flavors were more toward the toffee/chocolate side I would prefer less carbonation, but because the malts are more bready, spicy and light caramel forward the higher carbonation works here with the lighter malt bill. Finish is full and drying thanks to the higher ABV and the spicy rye malt.

Overall, this was a real treat. I love Rye IPAs and Rye Pale Ales and have been wanting to try one of these highly acclaimed Rye Wines. Although I have nothing to compare this to as far as the "style" goes, I can tell this was well done and I imagine it was probably too harsh and DIPA forward when initially released but I feel the bottle conditioning has made this a bit too carbonated over time and so I recommend consuming any bottles you have now to avoid extreme over carbonation. Drinking great, highly recommended for Barley Wine, Rye beer fans, and fans of Three Floyds/Mikkeller's style of unique beer creation.

On tap at FFF. Pours orange-red with a foamy, but fleeting, head. Aroma is crazy citrusy with a strong caramel and rye background. Taste is grapefuit and orange, bready and spicy. Really great. Finish highlights the rye followed by a light burn. Thick and velvety mouthfeel. Yum.

Pours out a nice light brown color with a modest head of tan across the top that fades and leaves light lacing in its wake. Aroma is hot, loads of alcohol here with hints of caramel, lots of hops and a just a biting malt nose as well. Really a very odd profile from both sides. Very hot on the palate again with minimal balance to it, just seemed like it was terribly off balance. Flavors were all over the place with hints of everything but the kitchen sink and just an very hot, hoppy, dry finish that really did not work well for me at all.